Best Thing For Butterflys To Eat

[jimi priest]

so i have recently gotten a African butterfly and am wondering the best thing for it to eat ( it doesn't move to much but at least i can always see it ( in my nocturnal community tank)

 

[nmonks]

Fruit flies are by far the best food for them. You can get wingless flies in any reptile shop. Simply add to the surface of the water a few at a time. Otherwise small houseflies, mosquito larvae, tiny crickets, etc work well. With a bit of luck, frozen bloodworms can be hand fed using forceps. Dried foods take a while to be accepted, so don't use them until the fish learns that you're the food source!

Do remember that Pantodon has a very specific mode of feeding and will only attack prey within quite a small arc around each eye.

Cheers, Neale

 

[lil.guppy]

We used to feed crickets to the ones in the pet stores

 

[Colin_T]

generally any sort of food that floats is taken. Freeze dried insect larvae work well but they will also take pellets and flake foods. After a few weeks they should take frozen foods as well. But they will ignore anything that isn't in the top couple of inches of the surface.

 

[jimi priest]

so he wont eat freeze dried but luckly i have gotten him to eat tiny crickets from my breeder ( i gut load the crickets with some vitamins and minerals ( and lots of veggies) and some bits of worm from pet supllies plus ( that i buy for a treat for my eel ) but how much of such should i feed them

only reason for asking is that when i feed him the cricket he oculd only fit most of it in his mouth and he chewed it up ( ant that was the smallest one i could get my hands on) and i have had fish choke on food bigger then there mouths before

 

[Colin_T]

If it can't swallow the cricket whole then it is too big for the fish. Look for smaller foods.
You offer them as much food as they can eat in about 5 minutes. Just offer a few bits at a time. When the fish no longer shows interest in the food then stop feeding it and remove any uneaten food from the tank.

 

[jimi priest]

you know i thought it was to big to but he chewed it up so i think its ok but im gonna try some freeze dried stuff

 

[alpha_ralpha]

I have been asking what would be a good fish to feed all these freeze dried crickets and mealworms to.
The abf is the #1 answer so maybe you could try those. I am ordering my abf this week and will post if it eats the freeze dried (it better, I have 2lbs of it.)

 

[jimi priest]

well giveing him live crickets isnt an issue it would be easyer not to have to catch the small ones but i am breeding them for my lizard anyway so him takeing a few isnt a problem

 

[jimi priest]

butterflys are smart if i poke the water he knows hes being feed and will come to the front away from his "hiding place" over the large rock caves

 

[jimi priest]

so i finaly got him to eat frozen foods today ( after about a week of crickets) unfortunately he hogged them all and i had to re feed by bgk hes such a pig

 

[afghan]

they will eat tetras lol my freinds butterfly fish ate all his rummy noses